Great Blaze
by SilentFang
Summary: Naruto the student of the Blaze Dragon Atlas Flame, discovers that he is not who he thought he was. Suffering from visions and memories that are not his own and demons trying to drag him back to a place he doesn't remember, will his new comrades in Fairy Tail be able to help him? StrongNaru, Half-Demon(Etherious)Naru NaruxSmall Harem, rated M for safety
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey everybody, SilentFang here droppin a new story on you all! Don't worry, I'm not replacing "The Behemoth" or anything, I just wanted to get this out of my head. It just popped in when I was dragged on an unexpected road trip down to Florida with a few friends of mine for a week (which is why it's been taking me so long to update lol) and I wanted to get this hashed out before I go back to work on that. I'll probably only update this once every two or three chapters of "The Behemoth" is released.**

**Anyway, The pairing for this is a small harem. The amount of girls and who are in it is secret for now and most of the relationships might take a while to develop, just a warning. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Fairy Tail, or any other series mentioned in this story.**

* * *

X775

"Oi, sensei, I'm here for today's lesson!" A small boy of about eight yelled as he ran up to an absolutely titanic bonfire that was located several miles away from a large village. He was a little short for his age, had blonde hair with blue eyes, tanned skin, and sharp triangular shark-like teeth with slightly thinner, longer canines. The boy was wearing a baggy dark red shirt with the sleeves being long enough to cover half of his hands and went down to his knees showing that it was too big for him, black cargo shorts that went to just below his knees, wooden geta sandals, and a long slightly feminine looking black scarf that dragged on the ground wrapped around his neck. "Come on; stop being so lazy you damn crispy lizard! Don't make me start eating you again! You know I will!"

The gigantic ball of fire that the boy was yelling at seemed to shift a bit before completely standing up, showing that it was in fact a living creature. It was over 100 feet tall and had four stubby limbs complete with claws, giant wings coming out of its back, sharp triangular fangs like the small child in front of it, empty eye sockets and two horns on its head. Overall, it looked like a giant flaming animal skeleton… but in truth it was the great dragon Atlas Flame, or Atlas for short.

"**Alright, I'm up Naruto. Calm down so we can begin.**" The dragon chuckled at the now named Naruto who was bouncing in excitement.

"Okay sensei. I'm just excited since I mastered the last technique you showed me while I was training last night! See, check it out!" He turned away from his dragon master and held both of his hands out. They turned a bright green as small orbs of the same color lazily floated out of them. "**Honoryu no Hotarubi (Blaze Dragon's Firefly Light)!**" he waited for the orbs to get a fair distance away before the green light in his hands turned into a soft orange color. "**Honoryu no Hidaruma (Blaze Dragon's Fiery Doll)!**" every ball suddenly glowed an angry orange before simultaneously exploding in a huge burst of flame. He turned back to his master with a face-splitting grin. "How was that? Pretty awesome, right?"

The dragon watched with a critical eye. "**Indeed, that was very well done. You are coming along just fine in your dragon slayer arts Naruto.**" In truth, the burning dragon was floored. Ever since the amnesiac Naruto had first wandered into the clearing Atlas Flame lived in two years ago, bloodied and barely dragging along the dead body of what was assumed to be his mother, the dragon had felt that he was something special.

Naruto's magical reserves had been enormous for a child his age, and his physical capabilities were abnormal as well. He decided to teach him Dragon Slayer magic since he knew that his old friend and fellow fire dragon Igneel along with a few other dragons around the world were teaching children their magic as well… but the blonde has surpassed all expectations.

Naruto was nothing short of a prodigy. He had learned and mastered the basic Roar, Fist, Claws, and Wing attacks that every dragon slayer knew within a few days of seeing them. Atlas Flame was sure that his student was well ahead of any other dragon slayer child out there. At this point, he was sure that his student could beat any low B-class mage at this age. He couldn't have asked for a better student.

There was a very strong latent energy source inside of him as well, Atlas could sense it. It was darker than eternano and didn't feel completely human— and if the dragon was being completely realistic, neither did Naruto— but that didn't stop him from teaching the blond child. Whatever the energy was, it wasn't magic… or at least it didn't work like magic since he couldn't get Naruto to access it like one would their magic container. It was already confirmed that the boy inherited it from him mother, since when the blue eyed boy first arrived, Atlas could feel corpse giving off the same energy only much stronger, so it couldn't be too bad… and since it didn't interfere with his magical studies, the dragon put it in the back of his mind as something to investigate later.

Looking at his student the dragon cleared his throat before explaining the next move to his student **"The next technique I will be teaching you is the **Honoryu no Taika (Blaze Dragon's Conflagration)**. Watch closely Naruto…"**

"Wait sensei, before we start," The child interrupted "I want to ask you a question that I've been thinking about for a while."

Stopping his demonstration, the flaming lizard looked at his student. "**Yes? What is it?**"

"Well, why are you called the Blaze dragon instead of the Fire dragon? Wouldn't it make more sense? Does that mean that there are other fire dragons out there?" he asked with a tilt of his head. The inquiry caused the dragon to pause for a moment. He didn't think his student would pick up on that.

"**Indeed**" Atlas nodded "**There are in fact other fire dragons in the world. The reason why I am called the "Blaze Dragon" is because there is one who defeated me in battle. You see Naruto, there is more than one dragon that corresponds to each element, but the only one who has the right to use the element's actual name is the strongest of that element. Every other dragon of that element must use alternatives.**"

Pausing to see if the blonde understood, he continued his explanation "**For example, I know of four dragons alive today who use the water element; Oceanus, Triton, Leviathan, and Watatsumi. Since Leviathan is the strongest of them, only she has the right to use the title "Water Dragon" in her attacks, while Oceanus, Triton, and Watatsumi must use "Sea Dragon", "Rain Dragon", and "Tidal Dragon" respectively.**"

"Oh, I see… So what's the name of the current Fire Dragon then?"

"**His name is Igneel. We fought each other for the title when the previous Fire Dragon, Xiuhcoatl died many centuries ago. I remember that in the times before Lord Xiuhcoatl's death, Igneel was called the Inferno Dragon. Every dragon wielding the fire element— there were seven of us at the time— was called forth at once to take place in a battle royale to decide who would take the previous Flame Dragon's place. Eventually it was only Igneel and I left on the battlefield.**"

"**Although he and I are equals in raw strength, I have more magical energy than him and more variety in my attacks, since he always preferred brute strength while I prefer finesse and technique… but to us Fire dragons that means nothing since we can eat each other's flames. Since we could not use our magic and our physical capabilities were evenly matched, our battle eventually became one of attrition.**"

Listening attentively, Naruto felt the need to ask "So, how did you lose? If you were even wouldn't the fight have been a draw?" he tilted his head to the side. If magic wasn't an option and they were the same in pure stats, how did his sensei lose? At the very least he should have been able to pull off a draw.

Nodding, Atlas flame responded "N**ormally yes, but remember Naruto, my body is mostly made out of inextinguishable fire. Whenever Igneel's stamina was low or he got too injured, he would eat the fire my body constantly produces to heal himself… quite an easy feat since we were locked in close combat. Eventually after many days of fighting I ran out of stamina and my body gave out from exhaustion, Igneel was the victor since he could constantly refuel when he got tired. Due to my loss, Igneel was crowed the new Fire Dragon, while I retained my title as the Blaze Dragon.**"

Naruto nodded while rubbed his chin in thought. "Does Igneel have a dragon slayer child too?" the child asked.

"**Yes… yes he does… the child's name is Natsu Dragneel…**" Atlas drifted off at the end of his sentence. Now Naruto was mildly confused. He could understand knowing that Igneel had a child, but how did his sensei know that child's name? And why was it spoken so warmly and with such… nostalgia? Filing that line of questioning away for later, Naruto grinned widely and punched his fists together while igniting them with his bright orange flames.

"Alright… I have the names of my two targets!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"**Targets?**" The flaming dragon looked at his student in confusion.

"Yeah!" the kid shouted with a face splitting grin "I'm going to beat the crap out of this Natsu guy and his dragon Igneel! Then I'll show everybody that you're the best fire dragon in the world! After all, if your student could beat up the current Fire Dragon and his student, wouldn't that mean that you're better than him?"

Atlas Flame stared at his student for a long while before bursting out into laughter. Naruto could be pretty damn interesting when he wanted to be… not everybody had the balls to outright say they were going to defeat Igneel, and even fewer could pull it off, especially if they were human. But despite the admittedly shaky logic, he could see determination in those cerulean eyes. "**Come; let's get started on today's training. If you're really set on fighting Igneel then you're going to need to learn all you can.**" He turned and started to walk away with is student following, cheering and raving about how he was going to kick Igneel's ass.

The flaming dragon tilted his head to the side slightly so he could observe Naruto discreetly. _**'Show everybody that I'm the best fire dragon in the world huh…? The sentiment is much appreciated Naruto, but I'm already…'**_ Shaking his head and refocusing on reality before he could complete his thoughts, the dragon focused on teaching his overly excited student.

* * *

X779

A now twelve year old Naruto was walking down the streets of the Sun Village with a small red haired girl next to him. The village itself was humongous; everything in it was several hundred times bigger than anything a human could use. It made sense seeing as the normal inhabitants were giants. Naruto himself was one of only two normal humans that lived there. The other was his best friend Flare Corona, the girl he was walking with, who was two years younger than him.

Flare was wearing a simple dark red dress that went down to her small calves. She was pale and scrawny for her age, but not enough to seem unhealthy. Her dull maroon hair was tied in a single braid that was at mid-back length. She had dull brown eyes with bags under them and walked with her head constantly tilted to the side and a nervous look on her face. She clutched a small plushie that looked like Naruto in one hand, and the real Naruto's arm in the other.

"W-what does the Eternal Flame want with me?" She asked with a small stutter as she gripped her friend's arm tighter. Flare had been abandoned in the forest near Atlas by her abusive father three years ago, so she always had a hard time conversing with people. Even Naruto, the person she trusted most could barely get her to relax. She was kind of… obsessed with him though, seeing as he was the only person she knew who ever treated her with kindness. Well, that wasn't exactly true, the giants in the village were all very kind despite their stature, but it was hard for a little girl to be friends with someone three times her age and over 100 times her size; especially one with severe anxiety and sociophobia like Flare.

"Eh, I don't know. He just asked for you." The blonde responded. Over the years he had grown a bit, now at the height of 5'3" and had very well developed muscles for someone his age. He had progressed greatly in his magical and physical studies, and was sure that while he couldn't outright beat one, he could at least hold off an adult S-class mage.

Naruto was still wearing the outfit he did as a child, the only difference being that the scarf dangled near his ankles now instead of dragging along the ground and the shirt looked like it actually fit him now, although it was still pretty baggy.

About 3 years ago a little before Flare arrived, Atlas Flame had started losing energy. He couldn't move around as much and the lessons started getting more and more infrequent as the dragon's mobility dropped until he eventually stopped moving altogether to save energy. The lessons stopped until about once or twice a week during this time, and on July 7, X777 they stopped. Atlas told him it wasn't due to his mobility, but that it was an important date for dragons and left it at that. He then decided to stay in his giant bonfire disguise and watch over the village.

When Naruto asked what was happening, he was told not to worry about it, but of course, he still did. Atlas also requested that Naruto not tell anybody in the Sun Village about him being a dragon, and to refer to him at the Eternal Flame when around the villagers and that his magic was the result of being blessed.

Once again he was given no explanation as to why, and it pissed him off.

Arriving to the sight of the disguised Atlas Flame, Naruto separated himself from Flare before walking a few feet forward and calling out "Oi I brought Flare-chan like you wanted!" he called out.

"**Yes, indeed you did.**" The giant fireball responded "**Flare Corona, please step forward.**"

The trembling redhead did as asked, moving closer until she was partially hiding herself behind Naruto. "Y-y-yes, w-what do you n-need of m-m-me Eternal F-Flame-s-sama?" the shy girl asked with an extremely prominent stutter. She hated talking to new people… well, the Eternal Flame wasn't exactly a _person_ but you get the point.

"**Ever since you were discovered and rescued by Naruto, I could tell you had more magical potential than most children your age. Not as much as Naruto when he was your age, but still a large amount. I understand that you already know the basics of Hair Magic, correct?**" Upon seeing her shaky nod, he continued "**It would be a waste for such an ability to waste away in the mundane… and so, I shall bless your hair with my flames. Use them well.**"

Before the redhead could register what she was told, an enormous ball of flame shot up high into the sky before dropping and landing directly on her, engulfing her in a brilliant orange glow. She started to writhe and scream in fear, but a hand placed on her shoulder stopped her. Looking over, she could see Naruto holding her shoulder comfortingly with a small smile on his face.

"It's okay Flare-chan… just relax, the fire won't hurt you at all. Just accept it and it'll be over in a few seconds alright?"

Nodding at her friends' advice, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As soon as she calmed down, the inferno surrounding her body condensed into an orange glow before disappearing in a flash of orange light and small embers. When the light died down, Naruto could see the changes his sensei's blessing had left on her. Her once pale skin had regained a bit of color and was now a soft peach. Her brown eyes had changed to a bright red and her dark maroon hair had lightened to a vibrant crimson.

_'W-wow'_ Flare thought as she focused on her magical energy _'Is this what a blessing from the Eternal Flame feels like…?'_ She could feel how much larger her magic container had gotten, and she could feel the power coursing through her veins. _'Is this how Naruto feels all the time?'_ she asked herself as she glanced at her only friend. She blushed a bit when she saw that he was staring at her with great intensity.

Little did she know, Naruto wasn't staring at her, but her now bright red hair. The color was the exact same as that woman… the last time he had seen such a wonderful shade of red was when Atlas Flame helped him bury the body of who he assumed was his mother. Unbidden by him, memories that weren't his own seemed to invade his mind. A searing pain seemed to slam into his skull out of nowhere, before it became too much… and he blacked out.

* * *

_When he opened his eyes, he found that was walking through a room he had never seen before. It was dimly lit with torches along the walls and was filled with large cylindrical glass tanks that all had a luminescent green liquid in them. On the top of each tank was a long, almost organic looking pillar made from dull brown stone that stretched high up and connected to the ceiling._

_He eventually stopped in front of one of the tanks and observed the person inside. It held the form of a sleeping woman with an attractive face, long black hair, and two large golden horns that pointed upwards slightly protruding from the sides of her head. He could see that she was missing more than half of her body, with only her head, upper torso, and left arm being visible. The rest was being slowly "grown" in the tank for lack of a better word._

_He could see his reflection of the glass, except it was not his preteen body looking back at him, but the image of his possible mother. She had long mid-thigh length vibrant red hair and slightly glowing venomous green eyes with slit pupils. She was wearing a black knee length cheongsam with dark red accents and a chain design going around the waist in the same color and an ouroboros symbol over the left breast. Covering her lower body were red Chinese martial arts pants that were slightly baggy and dragged along the ground behind her heels which were covered in black slip on shoes. The scarf that Naruto always wore was wrapped loosely around her neck and went to right below her butt. On her back was a large claymore sword and he could see she was carrying a small silver haired baby in her hands._

_"Observing Sayla again I see…" He heard another voice approach from his left "You always do this for a few hours every day. Why is that?" Turning, he could see another woman approaching him with a small smirk on her face._

_The woman was a bit shorter than the red haired woman, but had much larger breasts and a curvier figure. She was wearing a royal blue leotard with golden accents on the top that accentuated the generous amount of cleavage she was showing. Covering her arms, neck, and shoulders was a striped purple jacket, and she had a cape that split into four tails going down her back. Her face was covered with a silver helmet that had a large black gem on the forehead and exposed her onyx eyes and mouth that had black lipstick on her full lips. There were two long wing like pieces of dark green hair on both sides of her head, coming out of an opening in her helmet._

_There were two things about this woman that told him she was anything but normal. The first was that she had scaly claws in place of normal hands and bird-like feet complete with razor sharp talons. The second being the horrible feeling he got from her. The amount of energy this woman was unconsciously releasing in spades... it surpassed anything he had ever felt, even Atlas Flame. And then there was the feel of it. It was just… wrong. Like it shouldn't exist naturally in the world. It was just so thick and evil, completely unlike eternano. And the thing that scared him was that he had felt the same exact energy flowing through him even though he couldn't access it… but what he was feeling from this woman, hers was much darker and felt denser than his._

_"Kyouka-sama" The woman whose body he was in nodded respectfully to the now named Kyouka "I just can't help it… she is about the same age as little Kurama-chan here even though the circumstances of their "birth" are different. This is the first time I've seen another one of us being born. Even though Sayla-chan looks older physically, they will be the same age… that means that Sayla-chan and Kurama-chan will most likely start learning to use their curses around the same time when their cores stabilize. I want them to have a bit of familiarity before that time comes… what better time to start than when they're both babies right? Although Sayla-chan is technically still in the womb." He finished with a chuckle._

_"I see… that is a good reason" Kyouka nodded as she too stopped to look at Sayla. There was a slight tension between the two of them before she spoke up again. "Kushina… it has already been two months since he was born, and one month since Maou-sama gave the order. We cannot put this off any longer or it will be dangerous for him."_

_Letting out a shuddering sigh, Kushina looked down at the sleeping baby in her hands before nodding "I-I understand Kyouka-sama… but you can see my reservations with this. He is only two months old… must he really be tuned so early on? I was able to wait at least eight months before I needed it." Kushina finished. She could remember the agony she had been under when her demonic core was tuned… it exceeded any pain she had ever felt. And they wanted to do this on an infant? On her son?! It would kill him!_

_"Yes, all demons need to have their cores tuned or they become volatile and have a chance of self-destructing. Normally we would wait about five years before starting the process, and start training a little after, but in truth, even you had to be stabilized early. Remember, you were not born a demon Kushina, so your core is more unstable than someone like me who was born from one of Lord Zeref's books." _

_She looked at the red haired woman before continuing. "You were a dead human brought back to life by Keith's necromancy and transformed into a demon through my power, you were extremely volatile. But the circumstances of his birth" she pointed at the small bundle in Kushina's arms "make the risk of him exploding even more of an issue than you were since the eternano and demonic energy are clashing within him."_

_Yes… Kushina remembered, she was fatally injured when her town was destroyed by the demon Jackal when he was learning to use his curse. She had already been three months pregnant at that time and was at deaths door… but she was still trying to protect her unborn child. Keith, who had been watching over Jackal at the time, felt her immense magical powers and decided to bring her back to life when she finally died. She was a bit put off to find that she was a corpse, but as long as her baby was okay then she didn't care._

_Neither of them expected that the child was going to be a miscarriage and the unborn child inside of her would be revived as well._

_When she woke up, she was strapped to a lab table and Kyouka was standing before her, telling her that she was going to be an experiment to see how well a revived person could take being forcefully transformed into a demon. Surprisingly our of 99 other revived corpses, only she took to the transformation effortlessly… and to a lesser extent so did the fetus inside of her._

_Her transformation had as side effect that turned her nine month pregnancy into a ten month one, and one month after she gave birth she had to have her demonic core stabilized. They later found out that her son was born as a half-demon instead of a full one due to her previous human physiology, meaning he had both a demonic core and eternano container, and that the two energies were reacting violently towards each other since the demonic core was unstable. _

_Biting her lip, the green eyed woman looked at her child tearfully before handing him over to Kyouka "Please… take care of Kurama-chan. I don't think I'd be able to take it if he died…"_

_"Of course Kushina." The clawed woman said as she turned towards her laboratory where the tuning would take place. "I'll take good care of little Kurama. You can come pick him up when it's all over." Kushina turned back to watching Sayla so she could get her mind off the undoubtedly painful process her infant child was bout to go through. _

_She wouldn't see her son again in over five years._

* * *

When Naruto awoke, he found a worried borderline panicking Flare looking down on him as his head rested on her lap. He could feel the worry emanating off of Atlas Flame as well. Sitting up and rubbing his temples with a groan, he looked around and saw that barely any time had passed since his vision started.

"N-Naruto are you okay?" the ten year old girl asked. Standing up, he looked at her and patted her head while giving her a strained smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine… I must have been pushing myself too hard during training again and exhausted myself. Come on, let's go to back to the village." Flare stared at him a bit before giving a hesitant nod and following him back towards the giant village.

_'What the hell was that?'_ Naruto thought as he and Flare walked along the forest path. _'Kushina… that's the woman I was carrying when Atlas Flame-sensei first found me. Why was I seeing her memories? According to that other woman Kyouka, Kushina was a demon so there is no way she could be my mother… right?'_ thinking back on what he had observed in the vision he frowned a bit _'She did have a son, but his name was Kurama and he looked nothing like me… ugh, this is so confusing…'_

Feeling someone grab his hand, he looked down and saw Flare staring at him worriedly again. "Naruto… are you s-sure you're okay? You're being really quiet…"

Pausing to look at her, he gave her a warm smile and intertwined his fingers with hers before pulling the girl into a gentle hug. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired. Thank you for worrying about me Flare-chan." He kissed the top of her head, making the small redhead blush and stutter a bit. As he was enjoying the moment with his best friend, the sunny blond picked up a strange noise coming towards them… it almost sounded like…

"MOVE!" Naruto shouted suddenly as he pushed Flare away from him before jumping backwards. Three spears of pure white ice impaled the ground where they once were. The temperature dropped rapidly and the ground and the surrounding forest were flash frozen by the same white ice that had almost killed him and his companion.

Looking down the path, he could see the silhouette of a man leisurely making its way towards them. Even from this distance, he could feel the monstrous amount magical energy that the man had. It wasn't as large as that demon woman Kyouka from Kushina's memories, but it was damn close… about as large as Atlas Flame's reserves from a few years ago.

"Oh, you dodged it… not bad." The man said as he stopped a few yards from him and Flare. "I honestly thought you wouldn't have survived that." He finished with a lazy drawl.

The man in front of him was tall and well-built and seemed to be in his late thirties or early forties. He had dark eyes and black hair that was partially slicked back, but still left a few spiky strands of hair free so it had a semi-messy look to it. He had some stubble covering his chin and a large scar that went diagonally from the center of his hairline to below his left ear and he had silver earrings in the shape of crosses in both of his ears.

He was wearing a silver breastplate that gleamed in the sunlight and had the words "Absolute Zero" over the left breast, a black shirt with a gray fur collar underneath that, and dark brown pants tucked into leather boots. He had two round pauldrons on his shoulders that were colored dark blue and had a golden symbol of what looked like two crossed hammers on it. For some reason, seeing that symbol made the blonde's head hurt, but he ignored it in favor of watching the man in front of him.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Naruto asked harshly. He could already tell he was no match for this man at his current level, so the best he could do was fish for information and escape while protecting Flare.

"My name is of no importance." The man said. "What I'm here for is to exterminate the demon taking residence in this village." He finished with a smirk.

"Demon…?" Naruto muttered confusedly. "There are no demons here. If there was I would have known."

"Oh, but there is… in fact, I can feel its magic all over you." The black haired man replied before looking at a terrified and trembling Flare. "I can feel it all over her too… but the signature surrounding her is much more recent. Tell me girl, have you been fraternizing with demons? If so, I'll just put you out of your misery right now." Gathering magic into his hands, he sent a wave of ice at the still immobile Flare. Before it could reach its destination, a wall of bright orange fire blocked it and cancelled it out.

"Oi, if it's a fight you're looking for, I'm right here you damn bastard." Naruto growled out. Looking over his shoulder slightly he addressed his friend. "Flare-chan… I need you to listen to me carefully." Seeing he had her attention he continued "Go back to the Eternal Flame… tell him what's going on here then get to safety. No matter what happens don't look back. Keep going and find a safe place to hide okay?"

"B-but I-I can fight too!" the little redhead stated finally finding her voice. "I'm strong! You said so! I-I won't leave you h-here a-alone!"

"Yes… you are strong Flare-chan. But this man is out of your league. Hell, he's out of _my_ league. Besides, I'm not going to really fight… just distract him long enough so you can get away. So don't worry; I'll be right behind you."

"…You promise?" the girl asked after a moment of silence.

"I promise. And you of all people should know I don't break my promises."

"O-okay." The redhead agreed before turning around to run back towards the enormous fire who could hopefully help.

Clearing his throat and bringing Naruto's attention back to him, the armor wearing man addressed them again "Have you said your goodbyes?" he asked mirthfully.

"Shut the hell up. What happened to the giants in the village?" Naruto asked.

"I froze them. We can't have a bunch of giant demon worshipers walking around now can we? That's just plain dangerous. The only ones left are you and the girl…" Holding his hand out flat in a vertical position, he extended his arm out straight towards the direction Flare went in. "But pretty soon, it'll just be you." A gigantic amount of magical energy flared and his arm was covered in a thick sheet of white ice "**Ice Block…**"

Widening his eyes, Naruto jumped in the way of what was sure to be a very strong attack. His orange flames were already covering his body, flickering angrily has he charged up his own technique in response. "Like I'd let you! **Honoryu no… (Blaze Dragon's…)**" the preteen drew his arm back behind his head as far as it could go, a trail of fire following the movement.

"**Pheasant Beak!**"

"**Kyokaen (Mirror Flame)!**"

The armored man released a thin vertical pillar of ice that grew to a humongous size in seconds, before taking the shape of a pheasant in flight and rushing towards the flaming boy. At the same time Naruto threw his arm forward, conjuring a spiraling wall of intense flames that was the same size as the ice sculpture. The two opposing elements collided with a resounding boom and clashed for a few seconds before cancelling each other out in an explosion of cool mist and warm air that covered the both mages.

The two combatants stared at each other through the aftermath of their clash, one smirking and the other lightly panting before the older man started to chuckle, before outright laughing. "I was right about you! I've killed men more than three times your age with that technique and you matched it in an instant!" his smirk turning into a full blown smile, he continued "I wonder how much more you could take."

Getting his breath under control, Naruto pointed both of his hands towards his foe with his middle, index, and thumbs extended in a gun shape "**Honoryu no Higan! (Blaze Dragon's Fire Gun!)**" several small bullet shaped fireballs shot from his fingertips at an alarming pace, all headed towards the man in front of him. Each small bullet exploded on impact, kicking up a cloud of dust and blocking his target from view.

Once the attack ended, the dust cleared showing the man was completely unharmed. "Not bad kid." The black eyes man said before he suddenly disappeared from his spot. Catching a scent, Naruto looked above him and saw his opponent dropping down with both hands extended "But not good enough!" Another wave of ice was sent careening down at him.

A circle of orange flames gathered around the preteens feet before he slammed his fists into the ground "**Honoryu no Hibashira (Blaze Dragon's Fire Pillar)!**" as the name suggested, a pillar of fire shot straight up into the air, colliding with the ice attack and once more cancelling it out.

The middle aged mage landed on the ground and waited for the mist to clear. As soon as it did, he took a look around and found the blond missing.

"Oho… it seems like he went after his little friend. Now that won't do… that won't do at all." The man finished as he made his way to where he could sense both children's magical signatures in the same leisurely pace as before.

* * *

"Flare!" Naruto called out as he burst into the clearing panting hard. Looking around frantically, he saw that she was sitting next to Atlas Flame with her arms wrapped around her knees. Rushing over to her, he picked her up off the ground before grabbing both of her shoulders. "Flare, we need to get out of here right now! That man… there's no way I can defeat him." And it was true. In both of their brief exchanges, Naruto had used up a good chunk of his magical energy, especially during the first clash. And to make matters worse, the Higan Naruto used had absolutely no effect, even after he charged it with as much power as he could.

Naruto knew that he was outmatched in the beginning, but that small exchanging of moves showed that comparing himself to that man was like holding a campfire next to Atlas Flame.

Hearing a whooshing sound, he once again threw the redheaded girl forward before a blinding pain emanated from his torso. He could see a blood-soaked ice pike on the ground a few feet in front of him, and looking down he saw a giant hole in his chest that punched through his right lung. Falling to his knees, he looked behind him to see the ice mage from before standing at the entrance to the clearing with a malicious smile and an outstretched arm.

Coughing out what seemed to be a river of blood, he looked back to his friend who had a horrified look on her face as she stared back at his now blood covered visage. "F-Flare… r-r-run." he wheezed out before collapsing into the dirt.

Snapping out of her shock, the girl ran towards her friend before sliding on her knees and shaking him frantically "NARUTO! NO, NO, NO NOT YOU TOO!" she cried out as tears flowed from her eyes. "You can't leave me, you can't! You said you would never leave me alone again!" Unwanted memories stated to flow into her mind. Memories of her mother's murder by bandits, her older sister running away without her, her father's abuse and abandonment, and the feeling of having nobody around to want her assaulted her mind.

Those memories came to an abrupt halt when a boot-clad foot impacted her head and rattled her brain as it sent her flying across the clearing, rolling for a few feet before sliding to a stop. Coughing a bit and slowly getting up, she could feel blood flowing from a large gash on her temple. Trying to stand again, she let out a pained scream when two thin spikes of white ice erupted from the ground and pierced her hands, holding them in place.

The middle aged man watched her suffering with a neutral face, as he started to walk towards her, but stopped when he felt a hand on his ankle. Looking down he could see a wheezing and barely conscious Naruto lying in a puddle of his own blood, with more of it pouring out of his mouth glaring at him with all of the hatred he could muster. Such an intense glare would have intimidated even the most hardened of men, but unfortunately for Naruto, it had no effect on the mage in front of him.

"You're still alive." The man stated as he looked back into the blondes eyes "Your tenacity is impressive but…" the man kicked the blonde's hand off of him before lifting up his other foot. "It's also quite troublesome." As he finished his sentence, the raised foot was brought down mercilessly, stomping on the hole that went through the preteen's lung. Naruto's eyes widened and he arched his back in pain. The agonized scream that wanted to rip its way out of his throat was stifled by the large amount of blood that was forced out of his lungs, and he was once again kicked, this time in the side, the force sending him to the center of the clearing right next to the disguised Atlas Flame.

Wheezing, Naruto used the last of his strength to plead to his master. "Sensei… p-p-please… s-save… her." Feeling the dragon's magic build up, he slowly turned his head towards Flare, who had passed out from the pain a few moments earlier.

The black haired mage was standing above her holding a sword made of ice, and he was about to stab the girl right through the heart. As he was about to bring his blade down, the ten year old was covered in a brilliant orange glow before a large fireball engulfed her form, forcing her attacker to take a step back. When the fireball disappeared, Flare was nowhere to be found, and her magical signature could no longer be felt.

Letting out one last shuddering breath at the relief that flowed through his dying body, the boy uttered a quiet thank you to Atlas before finally letting his eyes close…

Only for them to fly open once more as he felt more pain rip through his chest and an unbelievable amount of dark energy flood into his system. It was heavy and dark, but it also felt familiar in a way. He could feel the wound on his torso stitch itself back together painfully, a sinister black energy with a green outline leaking out as it healed. Unknown to him, his hair lightened from its usual sunny blond to shining silver and his irises turned a glowing venomous green with a deep black slit for a pupil.

_'This energy…'_ the older man thought as he observed the transformation with wide eyes _'this boy wasn't taught by a demon… he is a demon!'_ thinking back to a conversation he had many years ago he recalled some important information _'Come to think of it, this is around the area where Kyouka told me that Kushina-senpai died and her son's energy signature disappeared. He must be…'_ his thoughts were interrupted when he saw the boys' body start to stand, his head lowered and eyes shadowed. He could see his shoulders shaking a bit before he threw his head back and laughed hysterically in a warbling voice, like it couldn't decide on whether to settle on being human or demonic.

"This energy… it feels so familiar… I feel like I could kill anyone! Ahahahahahaha!" locking eyes with the man across from him, Naruto gave a cruel smile which was enhanced by his naturally spiky teeth before speaking again "And would you look at that, I already have my first victim!" Suddenly, the boy had crossed several yards in less than a second, his arm already covered in black and green energy coming downwards in a claw slash-like manner. The energy molded into the form of a pitch black snake with glowing green eyes and mouth.

"**Ressenga (Falling Slash Fang)!**" Naruto cried out with a manic grin. The attack collided with the top of the ice mage's head and slammed him into the ground violently, kicking up a large dust cloud. Crouching down, he lashed out with a rising crescent kick with the same black snake looking energy engulfing his leg "**Gashokyaku (Rising Fang Leg)!**"

When the kick hit, it sent the man high into the air in an uncontrolled flight. "Not so fast! I'm not done with you yet!" holding his hand out, a small black hole about two feet wide surrounded by three glowing green hexagons appeared before a large black chain outlined with green energy and a snake-skull looking head shot out at unprecedented speeds and bit the man around the torso. The dark mage's eyes widened at the fact that he could feel his magic being drained just from being in contact with the chain before it started to retract back to the transformed Naruto.

"Ahahahahahaha! And here's the finisher!" he laughed psychotically before sending a reverse heel kick up towards the sky, causing an immense amount of the black and green demonic energy he'd been using to shoot upwards in a condensed pillar "Take this! J**ayoku: Hotenjin (Snake Wing: Crumbling Heaven Blade)!**" The attack completely engulfed his opponent while continuing to rise into the air high above the clouds.

Looking up, he couldn't see anything left of his opponent but a few scattered ashes that were blown away in the wind. "Disintegration kill. Heh, nice." He chuckled before turning around and walking towards Atlas Flame's still prone form. He could feel the genuine relief coming off the dragon mixed in with curiosity and apprehension. He was about to address the flaming creature, but was interrupted when a large spike of ice erupted from the ground. Naruto leaned back to dodge it but still suffered a deep gash that went from his left hip to just below his right pectoral.

Spitting out blood from sustaining a critical injury once again, he fell to the ground and grunted as he felt his thought to be deceased opponent's heel digging into his back.

"Oi, oi… that was pretty dangerous… but it also confirmed my suspicions. Even if I've only seen it once, I'd recognize that dangerous curse anywhere." The turning his head so he could look over his shoulder, Naruto could see that despite a few scuff marks on his face and the fact that he was missing his breastplate, the ice mage was completely fine. "Black snake-like energy chains that slowly devour the eternano in the body leaving behind nothing but an empty husk. Black energy waves that disable the use of magic as long as it is in contact with your body… you possess **Jormungandr**, the anti-magic curse... as expected from my senpai's child."

Seeing the transformation recede and boy about to pass out from blood loss, the black haired man raised his hand and covered it with a sheet of ice and moved to touch the boy he had pinned down. "Just relax kid; I'll put you on ice for a little bit okay? Sayla-chan missed you dearly and has been quite lonely without her partner… and I'm sure Kyouka would like to have her little pet project back… so, let's go back to "Hell" okay Kuram- GAH!" he was cut off when the flaming skull of Atlas Flame rammed into him with enough force to make him fly to the edge of the clearing.

**"Naruto, can you hear me?"** The dragon asked desperately. Seeing a small nod, he continued at a hurried pace **"It took all of this time just to work up enough energy to move. Even talking is physically taxing for me right now. I only have enough magical energy left to teleport you to safety… and even I don't know where you will end up. This is the last time we will see each other for a while, but do not despair! It is time for you to walk your own path in life! See the world! Experience your own hardships! Make comrades who you can trust with your life! Do not worry about Flare; she is safe and you will find each other eventually, I'm sure of it!"** taking a break so he could get his panting breath under control, the dragon slowly turned his head to the recovering ice mage. "**Our time is up… goodbye Naruto. I could not have asked for a better student... no, a better ****_SON_****!"** and with his piece said, he enveloped a now unconscious Naruto in his flames before, like Flare, he disappeared to parts unknown.

"Ah, he's gone. How disappointing…" Atlas heard the ice mage before him mutter before he shrugged. "Oh well, the news that Kurama's still among the living should be enough to get everyone worked up. And besides, my original target has finally shown himself… say goodbye, demon." Taking a deep breath, a pure white magic circle appeared in front of the ice mage's mouth before the released his magic in the form of a concentrated blizzard of ice and snow. "**Hyoma no Gekiko (Ice Devil's Rage!)**" he bellowed out.

As Atlas Flame could do nothing but helplessly watch the attack near him._** 'Son of Igneel… please accept my student Naruto as this old spirit's investment towards creating a better future. He will definitely help with the trials ahead… I look forward to seeing the both of you again someday.'**_

And with that last thought… the great Blaze Dragon, Atlas Flame knew no more.

* * *

Sitting up and looking around frantically, Flare Corona took stock of her surroundings. She seemed to be in a typical infirmary setting with stone walls, a wooden door opposite to her, and a window to her right that gave her a view of a mountainous wasteland. Various kinds of medical machinery were hooked up to her body, and she could see that her hands had been healed and bandaged thoroughly.

Remembering what happened; she brought her legs up to her chest and cried. Her only friend was probably dead and the only real home she knew since her mother's death was frozen over… even if she found a way to return, it wouldn't matter, everything she knew was gone and she was alone once again.

Hearing the door open she fearfully looked up and saw a tall muscular middle aged man with black hair and eyes, tanned skin and a thick black beard walk into the room. He smiled benevolently and spoke in a quiet voice that had a slight lisp "Hello there little girl. It is good to see you have finally regained consciousness."

Staring at the man for a few moments, Flare spoke up "W-who a-a-are y-you? A-and where am I?" she asked in a soft voice.

Chuckling, the man introduced himself "My name is Ivan Dreyar, and you are in the place I am going to make my future guild hall. Tell me child, what is your name? Where do you come from and how did you get here?" he asked gently.

"M-my name is F-flare. Flare Corona a-and I come from the S-Sun Village." She answered. When it came to the third question she began to sniffle and tear up once again and launched into the tale of what she remembered before waking up. Ivan listened to her story patiently, asking a bit about the man who attacked her and about Naruto before rubbing his beard and thinking for a bit.

"Indeed that is an unfortunate tale. It is terrible that one as young as you had to go through such a thing, and I am sorry about your friend." Going quiet once more, Ivan looked at the girl and gave her an offer. "Tell you what… if you really have nowhere else to go, how would you like to stay here and join the guild I am creating? You will have a place to live and I can help you with your magic since I am a very accomplished mage myself. I will even have some people on the lookout for your friend. They will definitely find him if he survived, and he could join us here if we ever do."

Looking at the man beside her bed with wide eyes, the ten year old girl felt more tears drop from her eyes and nodded before rushing forward and hugging him while thanking him repeatedly. She might not be with Naruto anymore, but at least she wasn't alone.

She never saw the absolutely sinister smile on the man's face as he hugged her back.

* * *

Feeling the bright light of the sun on his eyelids, Naruto slowly awoke to see he was staring at a wooden ceiling. Looking around with great effort he found himself lying on a very soft bed in a room that was sparsely decorated with furniture, but was absolutely filled with various potted plants and small trees.

The door to the room opened and a very old man carrying a wooden staff walked in. He had many wrinkles all over his face and an abnormally shaped head. He had light green eyes that were filled with wisdom and a bush of dark forest green hair on his head that made his head look like a tree.

Attempting to get up, Naruto was rewarded with a stab of pain in his abdomen and looked down seeing his entire torso and arms were bandaged up and had what looked like a light green herbal cream spread on them.

"Don't be in such a rush child… you were quite beat up when I found you. Quite frankly it's a miracle you're even alive right now with how much blood you lost." Picking the leaves off seemingly random plants, the old man put them in a stone bowl and poured a little water in before he took out a grinding stone and began to crush the ingredients inside.

"W-what happened?" Naruto gasped out. His chest was still in a lot of pain and his throat was incredibly dry.

"I was hoping you could tell me geheheheheh! It's not every day I find someone bleeding all over my garden you know." The old man answered mirthfully. "You have been unconscious for five days my boy. Whatever fight you were in that caused you to arrive here must have been one heck of a doozy!" he laughed before taking the concoction and walking over to Naruto so he could spread it over his wounds.

Flinching at the reminder of his recent defeat Naruto stayed quiet for the duration of the treatment before speaking up again when the man turned to leave. "Naruto." Seeing the raised eyebrow he got, he elaborated. "My name is Naruto."

Giving the injured boy a face splitting grin that showed that he had some missing teeth the plant looking man answered in kind. "It's nice to meet you Naruto-boy. My name is Walrod. Walrod Cken."

* * *

**A/N:well, there you have it. The first chapter of Great Blaze. I wanted to try several different things with this, especially since the current Tartarus arc is bringing in quite a few new things.**

**If you haven't noticed, the timeline for this is ****_technically _****after the Grand Magic Games. Atlas Flame has already met Natsu and gone back in time to found the Sun Village. When he met Naruto he was already dead and all that was left was his lingering spirit, which decided to teach Naruto his Dragon Slayer magic in order to help in the future. I made him best friends with Flare because for some reason I really love her character. The two were separated during Silver's attack on the Sun Village, which I also wanted to cover since it was never shown. The two kids will meet again one or two times before the GMG, so don't think I'm just going to have her disappear now that she's with Ivan and Ravel Tail.**

**Kushina is a revived human-turned demon that worked for Tartarus and was at one point one of the Nine Demon Gates before Silver took her place when she died. If she actually revived in Hell's Core or not is a secret for now.**

**On the topic of how Demons work, it was never really explained in the manga so I took a few creative liberties. Instead of an eternano container, demons have "cores" that power their curses. Said cores must be "tuned" due to the volatile energy that they produce, and may or may not eventually self destruct depending on how powerful the demon is. Higher demons like Marde Guille or E.N.D. doesn't have to worry about that, normal demons like most of the Nine Demon Gates have to be tuned before the five year mark after they are created, and artificial demons like Kushina (and later on, Minerva) must be tuned before the one year mark. Since Naruto was a complete abnormality and has two different energy cores, he needed to be tuned as soon as possible.**

**Yes, Naruto's Jormungandr curse is based off of Hazama from Blazblue with a few added effects and techniques of my own, while his Dragonslayer techniques will be taken from both the Mera Mera no mi from One Piece and several fire jutsu from Naruto.**

**Please read and review, I wasn't sure on whether or not to post this so any feedback would be much appreciated!**

**~SilentFang**


	2. Update Status (Nothing Bad, I Promise!)

**Hey everyone, SilentFang here with an update on the new chapters**

**The reason it's taking so long is because well... my laptop's life is spiraling the drain. I came back from a short vacation to find out my older sister had dropped it from who knows where and completely shattered the top left corner, meaning the monitor is only half attached (it's being held together by duct tape, if just barely) and the fan stopped working. The only thing keeping it from overheating every time I turn it on is an external fan.**

**Unfortunately, it seems to like cutting off on me at random times at well. I actually finished the newest chapter of **_The Behemoth_** before it shut down right as I was about to save my work and as a result, made me lose the whole file. And for all my fellow writers out there, you know how much that kills the mood and makes you not want to write anything new for a while.**

**BUT FEAR NOT, SILENTFANG DOES NOT GIVE UP SO EASILY!**

**As compensation to you, the fans, I will be making the next chapter of both **_The Behemoth_** and **_Great Blaze_** longer than usual. I usually churn out anywhere between 3,000 words at the least to a little above 8,000 at the most (9,000 if it's a good day). For my next update I will try to make it at least an 8,000 word MINIMUM. Just a little apology for taking a month to update hehe.**

**Anyway, for those of you wondering about the current status, I am about 4,000 words into the second chapter of **_Great Blaze_**, and I plan to start rewriting chapter 7 of **_The Behemoth_** right after posting this. Hopefully I can make it better than the first one.**

**Thank you for all your patience and I'll try to have the newest chapters out as soon as possible!**


	3. Bloody Bosco part 1

**A/N: Alright, here we go! Chapter 2 of Great Blaze comin at ya! I decided to make a short Original Arc that happens 2 years before canon so you can all have a feel of how Naruto is going to be for the rest of the story. It'll be pretty short, maybe 2 chapters. 3 at the most, if things don't pan out the way I'm planning.**

**Man was I surprised at the amount of attention the first chapter got! It made me really happy knowing something I wrote on a whim got such a positive response, so I'd like to thank you all for that!**

**I'd like to take this time to reply to a few reviews or PM's I got from chapter 1.**

**1.) How old are Naruto and Flare in the first chapter?**** At the end of the Prologue, Naruto was 12 and Flare was 10.**

**2.) Why did you insert so many Oc's in the first chapter?**** Nobody in Chapter 1 was an OC. I understand that the anime hasn't covered Tartarus yet, but that is no excuse to rant and rave to me about how I'm ruining FT canon. The anonymous Ice mage was Silver for those of you who didn't get it. Everyone else, please do your research**

**3.) Naruto is too weak and Atlas Flame shouldn't have died so easily.**** Listen, the person Naruto fought in chapter 1, Silver, is somebody that Post Time-skip Gray had trouble fighting against and someone who froze Natsu completely solid in less than a second. Besides, Atlas Flame isn't dead. Just frozen solid. Once again, do your research before dumping hate on me.**

**Well, now that that's out of the way, please enjoy!**

* * *

_"__**Jayoku: Hotenjin. (Snake Wing: Crumbling Heaven Blade).**__" A five year old Kurama called out in a dull voice as he unleashed his attack on a generic looking lesser demon. The black and green column of energy completely engulfed his opponent before dissipating, leaving nothing but a few scattered ashes that drifted down to the stone floor, joining the dead bodies of dozens of other lesser demons that surrounded him._

_The silver haired child was in a rocky field on the surface of Cube, Tartarus's floating Mobile Island. It was in the shape of its namesake and had several large wasteland-like outcroppings on its surface. It was currently floating in the sky over the ocean that separated Fiore from Caelum. _

_The space he was standing on was in fact on the underside of Cube, the exact opposite side of where Tartarus's castle was stationed. Looking up (or was it down?) he could see a large red patch had spread in the water before a gigantic Kraken floated to the surface with a hole that punched straight through its large body due to being caught in his attack._

_Lowering his leg to the floor, the young boy turned around to look at Kyouka who seemed pleased with his performance if the slight smirk on her face was any indication. _

_"Good job Kurama-chan." She praised as she walked up to him "You're taking to the implanted information very quickly. You've already completed most of the basic __**Jormungandr**__ techniques."_

_Looking up at her with a blank look in his green slit eyes, Kurama nodded and thanked her in his completely blank tone of voice. "Thank you Kyouka-sama."_

_Turning and walking towards a small building in the distance, the green haired demon woman motioned for him to follow. "Come, it is time for you to finally meet Meiou-sama. Hopefully we will be able to get permission for your first field test." She explained._

_Following the older demon into the modest looking building, he silently observed his surroundings like he was taught to do even if he was in friendly territory. It was a small laboratory-like building with white tiled floors and white walls. It smelled of both blood and disinfectant, and had several rooms filled with various lab tables, chairs, books, chemicals, and the occasional body or two._

_He couldn't see it but he knew that the large basement was separated into two rooms, one that was similar to Hell's Core that mass produced weak generic looking demons that were only used for his training or the odd invasion of a settlement that carried one of Zeref's books, and another well-furnished room which was where he lived, and sometimes Kyouka stayed with him whenever she had to stay here if she had any experiments going on that required an overnight stay._

_This place was Kyouka's secondary lab where she conducted her more dangerous experiments and kept him separated from the other members of Tartarus… or more specifically the woman whose curse he had inherited, Kushina Uzumaki. It was also where Kyouka implanted the information about several of Kushina's techniques directly into his brain so he could utilize his curse better._

_Walking towards the back of the building, he and Kyouka both stepped on to an archaic looking magic circle that glowed brightly before teleporting them straight into the throne room of Tartarus's castle. It was very large, as one would expect, with dark red curtains and banners that bore the dark guild's symbol on them hanging from the ceiling and several pillars that were strewn throughout the room. It was lit with several torches and candles that were burning in a dark orange light giving the entire room a very eerie feel to it. All in all, it was fit for someone who ran a guild of demons like Tartarus._

_Sitting on a throne made of grey stone and lined with what looked to be deformed demonic bodies and several dark lacrima in the middle of the room was a handsome young man that looked to be in his early twenties. He had very shaggy black hair that he kept in a large high ponytail and bangs that went down to his shoulders. His half lidded dark red eyes spoke of slight amusement and seemed detached from the rest of the world._

_He was wearing a black knee length jacket with tattered fringes and a white flame-like pattern all around the edges over a black high collared shirt with white accents, white pants with black straps at the ankle crossed in an X pattern and black dress shoes. He was leaning on his right arm while observing the both of them as they approached him._

_This was Mard Geer, also known as the Underworld King, and the leader of the dark guild Tartarus._

_Even though Kurama had little to no emotions, being in front of this man instantly put him on edge and triggered all of his danger senses at once. Not because of the amount of energy the Underworld King put out or possessed, in fact it was the exact opposite. No matter how hard he tried… the child could not sense anything from this man. All he felt was a void._

_That made two possibilities… One, this man was able to mask all of his power so completely that nobody could sense him, something so hard to do that the amount of people in the world skilled enough to be able to do so could be counted on one hand. Or two… his power was so large and encompassing that it was outside of his current capacity to sense._

_Both of those options terrified him equally._

_"Kyouka" the man in front of them started. His voice was slightly deep and came out smooth yet demanded respect all the same. "What can I do for you today?" he asked._

_"Meiou-sama" the demoness replied while bowing "I have come to inform you that it is time for Kurama's first field test."_

_"Ah, your little pet project you've been hiding from us." Mard Geer's eyes drifted to the small emotionless boy in front of him and studied him with something akin to amusement. "Kurama was it? He seems to have inherited your other pet's curse. How amusing… it is nice to meet you young one, my name is Mard Geer." _

_Seeing the silver haired child nod to him respectfully, he allowed a lazy smile to cross his face before he addressed Kyouka again. "Tell me, how far has he progressed?"_

_"While he has not been able to access it at this point in time, I have confirmed that Kurama does indeed have an Etherious form. He is also quite adept at the first stage of the __**Jormungandr**__. Just earlier he defeated 100 mass produced demons without injury. I have not yet added any human magic to his lessons, but I do know that his eternano container is quite large for someone his age."_

_Chuckling a bit, Mard Geer once again studied Kurama. "Impressive… I think that does indeed warrant a little field test. Tell me little one, would you like to see the outside world?"_

_Kurama stared at the man on the throne before nodding. "…Yes."_

_The smile on the demon king's face grew a bit larger "That settles it then. It just so happens that I have located one of Lord Zeref's books not too long ago. Franmalth's book if my intuition is correct."_

_"Oh?" Kyouka responded with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "Franmalth is quite a find Meiou-sama. He will be invaluable to us and our goals." _

_"Indeed he will. He was always so amusing." The black haired Etherious chuckled a bit. "Your test can be can be retrieving his book and bringing it back here. You can take Sayla along as well. Her core finished stabilizing a few days ago and she could use a little exercise."_

_"Thank you for the opportunity Meiou-sama." Kyouka said while bowing again. "I was planning to request bringing Sayla with us anyway, so this works in my favor."_

_"Indeed it does. You are dismissed." He said as he closed his eyes, allowing the demoness and her charge to turn and begin walking out of the room. "And young Kurama…" hearing his name the emotionless boy stopped and turned once more. Mard Geer slightly opened one of his eyes and smiled serenely, something which sent every one of the child's already flaring danger senses into overdrive. "I am expecting great things from you, please do not disappoint me. Good luck."_

_"… Of course Mard Geer-sama." He responded with a slight bow before catching up with Kyouka, the throne room's doors closing behind him. _

_As soon as he exited the room, Kurama let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Looking at his hand, he saw it trembling uncontrollably. Even though he was being raised to be an emotionless weapon, he was pretty sure that he had just experienced the sensation known as 'fear'._

_The duo walked down the halls in silence before Kyouka spoke up. "You should consider yourself lucky Kurama-chan." The clawed woman told him. Sensing his confusion she looked at him out of the corner of her eye elaborated. "Meiou-sama was quite angry with your lack of respect. It was subtle, but there all the same. Make sure to bow properly and address him by his title and not his name the next time you are in front of him." She scolded lightly._

_Seeing his nod, she brought her attention forward again and led him though the castle's hallways before coming to a large set of double doors. Pushing them open, the two walked into what appeared to be an enormous library filled to the brim with large bookshelves that were lined with books. In the center of the room was a long wooden table where the person they were looking for was sitting, reading a thick novel._

_She looked to be about the same age as Kurama, with long black hair that went to the middle of her back and held back by a white headband, large upward pointed gold horns coming out of the sides of her head, black eyes and a circular symbol on her forehead. She had a white choker around her neck and was dressed in a mid-thigh length white kimono with an elaborate pink sakura blossom design on it, and white thigh high socks which left her toes and heel bare since she wore no shoes._

_"Sayla" Kyouka called out, catching the attention of the younger demoness._

_"Kyouka-sama" Sayla greeted respectfully with a slight bow after she stood up and put her book down. "What can I do for you?" _

_"Maou-sama has deemed you ready to go on your first mission. You are to come with me to retrieve one of our comrade's books."_

_Nodding, Sayla approached her before shifting her gaze to the blank faced boy standing to the side. Strangely enough, he seemed familiar… like she had known him for a long time, yet she was sure she had never met him before. Deciding to ask, she turned to Kyouka. "Who is this Kyouka-sama?"_

_"Ah, this is little Kurama-chan. He is the same age as you, so he to accompany us. This will be his first mission as well. Say hello Kurama-chan."_

_Observing the horned demoness in front of him and unknowingly feeling the same sense of familiarity that Sayla was, Kurama gave her a nod. "… Hello Sayla-san." He greeted, with her giving one back in turn._

_Kyouka let a smirk cross her face as she watched the two interact. Hopefully they would work together well enough to become partners. __**Jormungandr**__, the Anti-Magic curse and __**Macro**__, the curse of Absolute Control… they covered each other's weaknesses well. Kushina was on to something when she kept the two of them close together when they were only months old, even if Sayla hadn't been completed at the time._

'These two children have the potential to become one of the most efficient pairs in Tartarus.'_ Her smirk widened at the thought._

_She couldn't wait to observe their growth._

* * *

**X782**

"Damn tree hugging old man. Dumping his stupid dirty work on me… I don't even want to be in this damn country! _"Go out and see the world! It'll be good for you! You might even make some friends!"_ Yeah fucking right! He's just a lazy ass!" Naruto grumbled as he walked through an arid wasteland. There was little vegetation around and the ground was dry and cracked from the lack of rain in the area.

Naruto had grown quite a bit in the three years since he met Warrod, now standing at the respectable height of 5'9" at the age of 15, a little above average for his age but not by much. He wore a long sleeved dark red shirt that was slightly tight on him instead of baggy like his old one and had no right sleeve, exposing his right arm and completely showing off his powerful lean muscles and the fact that he had a black ouroboros tattoo on his shoulder. His black shorts went to mid-calf length and were tied off at the ends by drawstrings so they weren't loose; he had red and black sneakers, and his mother's scarf, which was now thigh length.

The blonde's hair had grown out a bit so it was now to the middle of his shoulder blades, and had lost a bit of its spikiness, but still looked like a wild mess.

Stopping, the blonde shook in anger a bit before raising his arms to the air and yelled to the sky "GAAAAAH!" As if the surrounding area could hear his anger, a strong gust of wind blew, covering him from head to toe in sand and dust with some of it getting in his mouth making him cough and sputter as he spit it out. "I FUCKING HATE BOSCO!"

That's right; Naruto was currently in Bosco, the country directly southeast of Fiore, separated by the Worth Woodsea. Bosco is a mostly green country, full of dense forests and rolling grasslands with rich farmland and beautiful scenery. Even the towns were built with Nature in mind, being made up of nothing but organic materials that didn't damage the surrounding flora or fauna.

Unfortunately, the blonde half demon was nowhere near any of this.

No, he was sent to an area of Bosco that was opposite of Fiore, near the country of Stella which was full of wastelands that spread into about a third of Bosco territory. And even if he was in the better part of Bosco, why would he care? He was a fire mage god damn it! Sending him to a mostly forested place like Bosco was like begging him to accidentally burn down most of the damn country!

Anyway, getting back on track, the entire reason he was here was because his mentor Warrod had been hired by the king of Bosco and the Magic Council in Fiore to meet with a person Bosco's government hired and do a joint investigation on the murders of several thousand citizens in various towns and villages near the Bosco/Stella border.

He was supposed to meet Bosco's representative in the second largest city in the country, the holy city of Hydrus, named after Bosco's goddess of water and fertility. The entire city was like a manmade oasis, with water flowing in abundance even though it was in the middle of a wasteland. From what he was told, they apparently pumped up fresh water from the enormous underground spring that it was built on top of.

This was supposed to be Warrod's job alone, seeing as anybody that could kill that many people in under a month would definitely be dangerous, and according to Bosco it was better to have too much firepower than not enough. But that damn old tree man just had to send him ahead under the guise of "scouting ahead" because he didn't feel like going himself! And the worst part was Naruto couldn't even refuse!

After Warrod had healed him up, and Naruto had told the old man what had happened to the Sun Village, he had taken it upon himself to help Naruto master his **Jormungandr** curse seeing as how he already had a good grip on his **Dragon Slayer** magic. It wasn't as hard as it should have been, seeing as the names and instructions of new techniques had seemingly popped into his head whenever he mastered one (at least the most recent dream revealed why that happened. It had been bothering him for a while).

Under Warrod's tutelage, his control over his demonic energy was now only slightly below that of his magic, and for that the shark-toothed blonde was eternally grateful. They had also found out that he only changed his appearance when he "switched" his primary energy source. That meant he could now use his **Jormungandr** techniques without going into his "Kurama" appearance as he called it since he was channeling more eternano than demonic energy.

The reverse is also true, if he channeled more demonic energy than eternano, he would take his "Kurama" traits. The drawback was, while using eternano as his primary, his curse wasn't nearly as strong as it could be, and in his demonic energy primary, his **Dragon Slayer** techniques wouldn't cause as much damage.

Now he had another problem… Warrod wouldn't let him leave! That damn old man went behind his back and had him officially registered as his apprentice with the magic council! And when Naruto asked who the hell Warrod thought he was well… the answer he got was surprising.

* * *

_**Flashback X780**_

_"WHAAAAAAAT?!" A thirteen year old Naruto yelled out in a mix of surprise and rage. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO STAY?!" Embers started to appear around the pre-teen as his temper flared._

_It has been a little over a year since Warrod has patched Naruto up and a few months since they started working on his __**Jormungandr**__. Naruto felt he was finally up to snuff and could continue his training by himself as he traveled around while looking for Flare, but when he tried to leave the old man had told him that he wasn't allowed to anymore._

_"Geheheheheh," Warrod chuckled in the face of the blonde's anger. "You think you can just train under an old man for a year and then leave whenever you felt like it? It doesn't work that way my boy!" he stopped chuckling and wiped a tear from his eye. "Old people are selfish! You have potential Naruto, and I want to be the one to bring it out. Besides, I already registered you as my apprentice with the Magic Council! If you leave without my or their permission you'll probably get carted off to jail! The two of us are in this for the long haul now! Gahaha!" he finished with a silly laugh._

_Taking a deep breath to calm down, Naruto grit his teeth before asking "And just who the hell do you think you are? Why would the Magic Counsel even care if I ditched a crazy old bozo like you anyway?"_

_"Eh? I never told you?" Warrod asked with a generally confused face. "I'm a Wizard Saint my boy! Warrod Sequen, 4th God of Ishgar at your service! I'm in charge of foreign affairs with other countries. That means I'm not just any "crazy old bozo"… I'm a super important crazy old bozo, Gahaha!"_

_That information made Naruto pause. This crazy old man was a member of the 10 Wizard Saints? And not just any Wizard Saint, but a God of Ishgar?! He remembered Atlas Flame mentioning something about the top four Wizard Saints during their academic lessons… apparently they were the four strongest people in Earthland. So strong in fact, that they weren't even considered human! And this fuddy-duddy old man was one of them? What in the actual fuck?!_

_The now revealed Wizard Saint took note of the look of shock on his reluctant apprentice's face before he became completely serious. "Now you understand the situation. I am a very important person and the Magic Council doesn't take a Wizard Saint, let alone a God of Ishgar taking an apprentice lightly. They won't accept you just walking away from this… chances are they'd most likely have you black-listed as a dark mage out of spite." Sighing, he continued on "besides, it's for your own good."_

_That last statement only made Naruto angry again, this time he was completely engulfed in orange flames, the intensity of which caused a few plants and flowers close to him catch fire due to their close proximity. "You selfish old mother fucker! You're basically holding me here against my will and then tell me that IT'S FOR MY OWN GOOD?!" By now the angry blond was breathing fire with each word he spoke. "FUCK YOU! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK, I'M NOT GOING TO-"_

_"If you leave now, you will either be kidnapped and experimented on or killed, be it by dark mages or the magic council itself."_

_"W-what?" Naruto stuttered out in surprise, that one sentence causing a dramatic shift in Naruto's mood. Even the blaze surrounding him shrank significantly._

_"Even if only half, you are an Etherious demon my boy." Warrod started. "Even if your control has improved, and even if never use that curse of yours around people, you still leak out demonic energy like a faucet. Normal people and mages might never feel it, but the upper tier will sense it as soon as you get within 10 miles of their location."_

_Looking the 13 year old right in the eye, he continued "People will notice Naruto. They will investigate. Dark mages and Zeref worshippers will flock to you. Rune knights and light guilds will try to apprehend you. It will literally be you against the world, and no matter how far you run or how strong you think you are, you will eventually be cornered, defeated, and captured. And from there, it will be either experimentation… or death."_

_Clenching his eyes shut in frustration, Naruto yelled and slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a sizeable dent in the wood. "So what the hell am I supposed to do then?! Just sit here and twiddle my thumbs?! I have things to do god damn it! I can't afford to stay here for the rest of my life!"_

_"You mean looking for your friend Flare, yes?" Taking Naruto's silence as a confirmation he continued. "I haven't forgotten about that, and I'm not so heartless as to completely deny you your peace of mind. I've given her name and description to the magic council and they will have people on the lookout for her. After all, as long as I tell them she is important to me they will put everything they have into finding her. They can't afford to anger someone like me after all, gehehe."_

_The blond gave one last growl before giving in. "Fine. I'll stay. But only until I'm good enough to completely suppress my Etherious powers! And I expect to hear any and all updates involving Flare-chan, got it?!"_

_Giving the child a wide, toothless smile Warrod laughed "Of course my boy, of course."_

* * *

And from there on, he stayed and learned under Warrod. He was deemed ready to go back into society about 6 months ago… but since then he had basically been the old man's damn whipping boy! Doing nothing but one job request from the council after another since his master was just a lazy old fart!

Although he always looked forward to the frequent trips to Era… or more specifically, he looked forward to seeing a certain member of the Magic Council. He could picture her now. Her long, silky black hair… the amazing shade of red lipstick on her full pouty lips… the tantalizing smell of her perfume… the booty. Oh sweet merciful god _the booty_.

God damn she was perfect.

He was forcefully thrown out of his musing when he noticed that he had somehow wandered into town while he was fantasizing… and he was standing in the middle of what seemed to be a jail cell. Wow, he must have been really out of it.

"Okaaay… how the hell did this happen?" Naruto questioned himself as he looked around. It seemed like a pretty standard prison. Stone walls, metal bars, the works.

The quality of the materials, while adequate enough to hold a civilian, was piss-poor when compared to the prisons in Fiore. Any mage worth their salt would be able to break out of here relatively easily. Hell, they didn't even cuff him! And there wasn't any magical restraint material anywhere.

Well to be fair, the amount of magic users in Bosco was significantly lower than the mage population in Fiore, which was considered the magic capital of the world. But still, this was one of the largest cities in the country! They should at least have some form of anti-magic confinement.

Spotting a guard wearing dark blue armor and holding a spear standing at the exit, he decided to get some answers. "Oi, guard guy. Any idea why the hell I'm in here? Or where here even is?"

The guard glared at him for a bit before answering in a clipped tone "You are in the holy city of Hydrus. You were arrested on the charge of public indecency and sexual assault."

Blinking, Naruto addressed the guard again. "Public indecency…? Wait, sexual assault?! How the hell did that happen?!"

"You were witnessed walking into the city with steam coming out of your ears whilst drooling fire along with making lewd hand motions and giggling suspiciously. When a nun came to ask if you needed assistance you repaid her kindness by groping her and whispering _"The Booty"_ you fiend! To assault one of the holy maidens of the city in such a way is an affront to the water goddess herself!"

_'A-ah… maybe I shouldn't fantasize about sexy women so much in the open… I'm still not used to keeping it inside my head yet' _Naruto thought with a sweat drop _'Well, at least I made it to the city where I'm supposed to meet Bosco's agent.'_

"So what now…?" he asked

"You have been branded a heretic and shall wait here until your trial in three days." The guard replied.

Well shit. Eh, it's not like he couldn't break out of here whenever he wanted. Yeah, it might cause some minor conflict with the locals and maybe Bosco's higher ups, but hey, not like he was the one who'd have to deal with it… Warrod would. _He_ was the one in charge of foreign affairs after all. And this totally wasn't any kind of petty revenge over the fact that his master had this stupid job pushed on him.

Nope. Definitely not.

Hearing a yawn on the other side of the holding cell, the blonde turned to find another resident who had completely escaped his notice. He seemed to be about 18 or 19 and had straight black hair that was kind of messy and went down to right below his neck and framed his handsome face, reddish brown eyes and slightly pale skin.

He was wearing expensive looking clothes that consisted of a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a red cravat that was tucked into a black vest that was buttoned, black leather gloves, black dress pants, and black dress shoes with steel plating on the tips and heels.

"Eh?" the black haired young man yawned out while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes "What's with all the noise?" spotting Naruto, he blinked in surprise before smiling widely "Oh awesome, a cellmate! What's up bro?!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Uh… hey?" Naruto replied, a little put off at how excited this guy was to have company in prison. That only happened when they were either off their rocker, or they wanted an ass slave. He'd have to watch this guy… there was no way in hell he was going to be anybody's prison bitch.

"What're you in for new guy?" The fancily dressed teen asked.

"I… I'd rather not say." He spoke with a blush. He'd rather not let it get around that he groped a nun. "You?"

"Accidentally destroyed some super ancient holy relic or something like that. I don't see what was so important about it. Looked like an ugly statue to me." He shrugged. "Name's Vlad by the way. Vlad Tepes." He stuck his hand out to the younger male to take.

Grabbing it, the blond gave a firm shake. "Naruto, no last name. Nice to meet you Rad Teeth."

Sweat dropping at the horrible mispronunciation of his name, he tried again. "What? How did you even-? Never mind. It's pronounced Vlad Tepes."

"That's what I said… Grad Sheeps."

"Vlad Tepes."

"Sad Beeps?"

A tick mark appeared on Vlad's forehead. This kid was starting to piss him off. "Vlad Tepes!"

"Plaid Jeeps?"

Several more tick marks appeared. His left eyebrow started twitching and a throbbing vein made itself known on his temple "Vlad! Tepes!"

Pausing for a second, Naruto studied the young man across from him tentatively before speaking up again "Legend of Zelda's Sheik?"

"VLAD TEPES! MY NAME IS VLAD TEPES GOD DAMN IT! IT'S NOT THAT HARD!"

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

"… M-main antagonist of the 1980's Crest Toothpaste commercial, The Cavity Creeps?"

Finally losing what was left of his temper, the older male jumped back a few feet to create some distance "_OKAY_ THAT'S IT! I'M KICKING YOUR ASS!"

Jumping back a few paces himself, Naruto took a ready stance, although he looked a bit confused on why his cell mate was so enraged. "What's up with you, Crème Fraiche?"

Hearing another outrageously bad attempt at his name, Vlad pulled his foot back before kicking forward with significant force "**BLOODY BLADE FANG!**" he yelled out as viscous red liquid in the shape of an arc with multiple spikes sticking out of the front flew at Naruto at an amazing speed.

Sidestepping the attack easily, Naruto watched as it continued until it cut right through the cell bars behind him and incapacitated the guard. "Now that was uncalled for. But if you wanna play that way, then…" Igniting bottom of his left foot, the dragon slayer blasted off towards his opponent, reaching him in less than a second.

"**Honoryu no Kagizume (Blaze Dragon's Claw!)!**" Naruto yelled as he lashed out with a burning kick, which was dodged and created a large hole in the prison wall. A large shockwave shook the building as the wall came crashing down, startling the people outside.

"Heh, you're pretty strong kid." Vlad complimented as he observed the damage from the failed attack. Suddenly, two large cuts formed on his forearms before what appeared to a copious amount of blood flowed out and wrapped around his hands and forearms before hardening. "Let's see how you handle this! **Bloody Armor!**"

Easily dodging the red coated fist that was aimed towards his face, the blonde teen groaned a bit before covering his nose. "Ugh" he grunted while blocking a follow-up kick with his shin "Are you actually using real blood? It reeks." Yeah, draconically enhanced senses were cool, but damn if they didn't suck sometimes. Plus, this guy's blood smelled off somehow. It really made his head spin.

"Hey man, don't go knocking the **Blood Magic** okay?!" Vlad growled as he lashed out with a sweep kick which was jumped over, and was forced to block another flaming kick from a still airborne Naruto with his armored hands, the force of which sent him skidding through the hole in the wall and out into the streets.

_'Okay, this kid is a lot stronger than I assumed.'_ Vlad thought as he watched his opponent walk out of the building as well with his hands in his pockets and a bored look on his face. Looking down at the palm of his hand, he saw a decent sized crack in his armor, which was impressive seeing as it was only just a bit weaker than iron. _'Just goes to show how big the world really is if a kid like him could be this strong.'_

Naruto himself was also observing his opponent. _'This guy's armor is the real deal. I put a good amount of force into that kick and it only cracked it.'_ His eyes narrowed a bit as he saw the crack glow a bit before sealing shut, leaving the armor good as new. '_And it's self-repairing as well. Oh joy'_

He turned his attention to the black haired teens face '_And Fad isn't too bad himself. He has no real fighting style, but his instincts are top notch. His speed and reaction time aren't bad either, even though he seems like more of a ranged fighter than a balanced one like me. I haven't really done anything but counter so far, but he's keeping me on my toes.'_ taking a deep breath, the half-demon gathered his orange flames into she shape of a ball in the palm of his right hand. 'Alright, let's see how he does on defense.'

"**Honoryu no Kagero (Blaze Dragon's Heat Haze).**" tossing his hand forward, the small ball in the teen's palm transformed into a thick stream of fire that shot forwards at an impressive speed. An explosion of dust and embers kicked up at Vlad's location, but Naruto was already in motion.

Running forward, Naruto jumped above the smokescreen and took a deep breath, his chest puffing out slightly. "**Honoryu no Hoko (Blaze Dragon's Roar)!**" Just as his flames were about to incinerate everything inside the dust cloud, he was forced to stop his attack and lean his entire upper body backwards at an awkward angle to avoid a **Bloody Blade Fang** that had completely cut through his roar and sliced off a few strands of hair.

Turning his awkward dodge into a backflip, the blue eyed mage landed back on the ground, the smoke clearing to show a half-dome shaped shield of blood that had blocked his **Kagero**.

Jumping out from behind his cover, Vlad rolled before jumping to his feet and aiming his now fingers at Naruto in a gun gesture, showing that his armor and gloves were both gone. "**Bloody Bullets!**" He called out as the tips of his fingers opened and blood pooled out in spheres the size of ping pong balls before firing.

They only made it about half way before they were shot out of the air by bullets of fire, the techniques cancelling each other out. Naruto chuckled and aimed at Vlad with his own finger guns, his fingers ignited. "**Honoryu no Higan (Blaze Dragon's Fire Gun)**. Looks like we're going to have an old fashioned shootout, eh Brad?"

"Looks like it." The older teen responded, this time ignoring the way the blond mispronounced his name.

Both of them stared at their opponent for what seemed like an eternity, before as one they both started running in the same direction parallel to each other, firing dozens of bullets, taking care to dodge as many as they could without slowing down and shooting any they couldn't out of the air. The mobile shootout caused any of the city's inhabitants that were brave enough to stay and watch the two of them fight to scatter and take cover, so as not to get caught in the crossfire.

The shooting match took the two all the way down the main street of the city, leaving holes in the buildings where the blood bullets pierced, or small craters in the fire bullet's case before Vlad decided to step it up and aim all ten of his fingers at once with his bullets shrinking to the size of small marbles.

"Take this!" he shouted angrily before he started firing ten bullets a second, each one going several times faster than before due to the decreased size.

Naruto cursed, knowing he couldn't dodge that many at once. He decided to turn and run down a dead-end side street using evasive maneuvers to avoid getting hit. Running in a zigzag pattern, he jumped up on the wall at the end of the street before pushing off and twirling in the air so he was now facing Vlad once again.

"**Honoryu no Taika (Blaze Dragon's Conflagration)!**" He called out while waving both his arms in a wide arc. A crescent of flames hung in mid-air for a second before turning into an enormous amount of needle-like sparks which sped forward and met each blood bullet shot for shot.

A large gout of bright orange fire then erupted from the bottom of Naruto's foot, propelling him forward while simultaneously sending him into a series of front flips that brought him all the way back to his opponent. Turning his final flip into a flaming axe kick that shattered Vlad's hastily thrown up guard, Naruto followed up with a knee to the stomach and a devastating right hook that sent the other combatant flying before skidding on the ground.

"And it looks like first blood is mine Pad." The half-demon taunted at his downed opponent while chuckling at his unintended pun.

Vlad slowly stood up, anger apparent on his face as he coughed up some blood. Lifting his left hand, the veins on the back of his hand started to bulge excessively as he covered them with his right palm, then started charging magic into them. "Alright kid, you're _really_ starting to piss me off so..." He growled out. "I'm going to finish this in one attack." Pulling his palm away from the back of his other hand, he revealed that a scythe-like blade of blood was starting to form in between them. "Be sure not to blink, or you'll miss it."

Raising his eyebrow Naruto felt the impressive buildup of energy before giving Vlad a feral grin. "Alright then, if you want to start breaking out the big guns…" Holding both of his arms out if front of him with his palms facing each other, he started gathering flames in a perfect sphere that was two feet in diameter before slowly condensing it to half of its original size. This caused the core of the technique to turn bright blue and heat waves to become visible around the blonde's form "I guess I can humor you."

"**Blood Magic Ultimate Technique…**"

"**Honoryu Ougi (Blaze Dragon's Secret Technique)…**"

"**Crow Claw: Invisible Black!**"

"**Enkai: Goenkyu (Flame Commandment: Great Blaze Ball)!**"

Finishing his charge first, Naruto shot his orb of flame at Vlad, the attack expanding until it was several times its original size. In response, Vlad released his blade, the buildup and quick draw of Vlad's technique created several flying blades made of air pressure.

**Invisible Black** cut through **Goenkyu** multiple times, splitting it into several fireballs that went off course with only one hitting the **Blood Magic** user directly in the chest and blowing up. The rest of them diverged radically, passing by the intended target and raining down on the buildings behind him, each one of them causing a huge explosion that incinerated everything that was caught up in them.

On Naruto's end, he ended up getting dozens of deep gashes on his body, the ones that didn't get him slicing through the buildings behind him. Even the air pressure from the slashes carried on, creating hundreds of gouges on several subsequent buildings as well, resulting in some buildings completely falling apart.

After their attacks died down, both of their panting forms were revealed. Vlad's shirt and vest were gone and his chest was badly burned and bleeding, while Naruto's clothes were in tatters and blood leaked from his numerous cut wounds. Blue eyes stared into wine red before narrowing as the both of them tensed up. The two teens then ran forward, Naruto igniting his fist and Vlad covering his in his **Bloody Armor**. Both released a devastating battle cry and lashed out with their respective punches, resulting in a cross-counter…

And as one they both flopped over unconscious.

* * *

Pain.

That was the first thing Naruto felt when he regained consciousness. Even though he could tell that most of his cuts were now little more than flesh wounds due to his demonically enhanced healing, he still felt the full effects of his opponent's attack. What did he call it? **Invisible Black** or something like that?

Invisible was right. He had the enhanced sight of both a dragon slayer and (to a lesser extent) a demon and even he could just barely make out a blur. Plus that thing had cut right through his **Goenkyu** like child's play. Not something too many people could boast about. He had to hand it to the **Blood Magic** user, that last attack was one hell of a doozy. He was sure that if anyone other than him took that head on, they'd either be out cold still or have bled out while unconscious.

Groaning and sitting up, he finally noticed the situation he was in. He and Vlad, who seems to have also just awoken, were currently surrounded on all sides by what looked like every armored guard in the city of Hydrus, and behind them were hundreds of irate citizens that looked ready to tear them apart.

The guards were also pointing _very_ sharp looking lances at them.

Oh. Well shit.

"H-hey everyone." He stuttered out while raising his hands to show he meant no harm as he slowly climbed to his feet. Out the corner of his eye, he saw the black haired teen was copying his movements. "What's with all the hostility?"

One of the guards, who he assumed was the captain due to the gold accents on his armor, spoke up. "Be silent! The two of you have destroyed out wonderful city and have most likely brought the fury of the goddess upon us!" Destroyed the city? What did he mean- oh.

Looking past the mob, he could see that one half of the city looked like it had been through a blender; every building within eyesight had multiple gouges and slash marks that went right through them. Some were even cut into multiple pieces.

The other half on the other hand, looked like it had been paid a visit directly from the sun. Billowing plumes of smoke could be seen, and debris and ashes were scattered everywhere. He could even see that some parts of the stone houses had melted right through from the heat.

"The two of you shall answer for your crimes!" the guard captain shouted getting a universal murmur of agreement from everybody around him. "You shall both be publicly executed immediately!"

"Hey kid." Naruto turned when he heard Vlad whisper to him "What the hell are we going to do now?!"

"Don't panic." He whispered back. "I have a plan. Just follow my lead." Seeing Vlad's slight nod, he decided to get started.

"You fiend!" Naruto yelled in an overly dramatic voice. "How DARE you bring destruction to this holy city of Hydrus?!"

"What? Me?!" Vlad exclaimed in an equally dramatic voice "It was you who destroyed the city of the great goddess! Guards, arrest this heretic!"

"Trying to pin your dastardly crimes on me?" slapping the slightly taller teen on the cheek, he discreetly looked to the side to see that the guards and citizens were talking confusedly among themselves, confused at the new happenings, although the captain was still watching them intently. "You insult my honor!"

"First you falsely accuse me of your crimes and now you strike me?!" Vlad yelled, sounding accosted. "Have at you!"

For the next minute the crowd of people watched incredulously as the two teens kept slapping each other back and forth. Just what the hell was going on here?

"Okay that's it!" Naruto yelled turning his hand back in a fist. "I have grown tired of you, vermin!"

"And I, you!" Vlad responded making his own fist. "It is time to answer for your crimes!"

Both of them pulled their fists back as far as they'd go, then launching them forward with extreme force… before suddenly turning, their fists both hitting the guard captain in the face. The impact immediately knocked him unconscious while sending him flying through the crowd. "TIME TO GO!" they both shouted at the same time, both running like death was on their heels towards the exit of the city, the stunned guards gathering themselves and giving chase.

Looking behind them, Naruto cursed before looking to his fleeing companion. "Hey, you got anything that could hold them off?" he god a shake of the head in response

"I'm out of magic energy! I used most of it in that last move! Man, I don't want to go to jail! Pretty guys like me always end up being someone's bitch!" he cried, anime tears now running down his face.

"W-what? Dude we were just in jail a few hours ago! It was only us!" the blonde replied incredulously. Seeing a pointed look thrown his way, Naruto grew a tick mark on his forehead. "I DON'T ROLL THAT WAY YOU IDIOT! Just forget it, I'll take care of them!"

Jumping in the air, all of the fingers on his left hand burst into flames before he waved it in a sweeping motion. "**Honoryu no Enjomo (Blaze Dragon's Flaming Net)!**" A large ring of fire suddenly appeared around their pursuers, trapping them in one place, lest they want to be burned.

Needless to say, with nobody to chase after them the two teens made a clean getaway.

* * *

A few hours and several dozen miles away, we find the two resting in a cave hidden in the side of a rocky outcropping. Both had changed into new clothes seeing as Naruto looked like he had been mauled by a wild animal and Vlad looked like he had been on a date with an incinerator. They were sitting around a fire that the blonde had started and eating some provisions they each had packed.

"So you're from Fiore huh? What're you doing this far into Bosco?" Vlad asked with a mouth full of food.

"Well, I was _supposed_ to be meeting someone from the Bosconian capital to help with the murders that have been happening around here. But seeing as how we just destroyed the city I was supposed to meet them in, that most likely won't be happening." He shook his head in annoyance "And this is an important mission so I can't just go back home for no good eson either." Seeing his companion looking at him with wide eyes, he decided to ask. "What's with you?"

"No way! I was sent here to look for a representative from Fiore! I'm the guy Bosco sent!" he shouted.

Naruto studied him for a bit, looking up and down his form with extreme scrutiny before turning his head to the left and sighing despondently. "I know Bosco doesn't have many magically capable people but I was at least hoping they'd send someone strong…"

"Oi! I'm sitting right here blondie!" Vlad shouted "And what do you mean "send someone strong"?! I went toe to toe with you and we ended up in a draw! I even cut through that so called "Secret Technique" of yours with no problem!"

Sighing once again Naruto looked Vlad in the eyes. "That was nowhere near my best. I didn't want to burn the entire city down… although that's kind of a moot point now." He drawled out. "And besides, I'm guessing that **Invisible Black** is the strongest technique in your arsenal right?" he received a nod. "Well out of the four attacks that fall under the **Enkai** category, **Goenkyu** is the weakest. I was holding back the entire time, idiot."

Vlad just stared at him, a little put off that a kid four years younger than him could boast something like that. '_To think that I'm actually this outclassed. That Goenkyu technique was the real deal. I only got hit by a small part of it and barely healed.'_ bringing his hand to his chest, he could feel that there were only light burns under his shirt instead of the scorched flesh there was before._ 'If I had taken the entire thing head on, even someone with my… _condition_ would be hard pressed to get back up from that.'_

While he was by no means the strongest person in Bosco, Vlad knew for a fact that he was well above average. He was one of the countries few S-class mages after all, and the king had trusted him enough to send him on an important assignment like this one, which could potentially affect the rest of the country. Even though he had been holding back a bit in that fight as well, **Invisible Black** was truly his strongest trump card... and now some kid from Fiore comes and tanks it like nothing and returns fire with something that could have potentially killed him. As much as he'd hate to admit it, he knew he would have lost if the blonde had either gone full throttle from the start or used his secret technique a bit earlier.

That just goes to show how large the gap in quality between Fiore and Bosco's mages really was.

"So Vlad" Naruto started, drawing the red eyed teens attention again. "What're the specifics of this assignment anyway? I was only told the basics by my master before he sent me off on my own."

"Ah, right." Clearing his throat he was about to start before something caught his attention. "Wait a minute… you called me Vlad!"

"Well duh, it is your name isn't it?"

"Then what the hell was all that stuff about calling be the wrong name back in Hydrus?!" he shouted.

"Eh? That? I was just bored and wanted to mess with you."

". . ."

". . ."

"… I don't like you." He deadpanned to the younger teen who just waved him off. "Anyway, as you know a string of murders along the border of Bosco and Stella has brought up concerns. The populations of entire villages and some small towns have been turning up dead leaving nothing behind but their dried up husks in the streets. Our job was to investigate these happenings and bring it back to the capital who would then assign a combat team to finish the job, but it was changed at the last minute. It's now a full on extermination mission."

"Extermination, huh?" Naruto mumbled. "If it was changed then that means they already figured out what's been causing the murders and where they're hiding." Getting a nod, he continued. "If that's so then why not send the combat team? We're supposed to be the investigation team, right? Why are we still here?"

"We _did_ send the combat team. They were two of our strongest S-class mages. They… they never came back." Vlad responded as he clenched his fists.

"… Did you know them?"

"Yeah. Their names were Byron and Seraphim. They helped me out a few years back, when I ran away from home and was in a pretty tough spot... but now…" Vlad closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"… I'm sorry for your loss then." It was silent for a bit before he spoke again "Is that why you took this mission? So you could get revenge for them?"

"No… even if this _was_ for revenge, they wouldn't want that." He shook his head. "The reason they sent me was because I'm sort of an expert on what's been happening."

Now that just confused Naruto. "How so?"

"Well, something like this has happened before in Bosco's history. About 300 years ago, when Bosco was still named Transylvania, the country was in the middle of an extremely bloody civil war. The forces of the king of the old royal lineage, who the people were trying to overthrow, found a book that contained an immense power. When the old king heard of it, he tried to absorb that power into himself."

"Did it work?" Naruto asked. Normally he wasn't one for backstory like this, but this looked like it was shaping up to be one of those problems he couldn't just punch into submission without knowing a bit about it.

"Only partially. It did grant him immense power, but it also twisted his mind and soul beyond recognition. He went out and personally slaughtered every soldier who opposed him, rounded up all of the citizens that supported them, and then he publicly executed them… by draining all of their blood leaving behind nothing but dried up corpses. The book transformed him into what everyone today knows as a vampire. The very first one, with his direct descendants becoming vampires as well. And with every person he fed from, his strength grew more and more… until eventually he became too powerful to stop by conventional means. He started entire crusades and conquests and because of his power, nobody could stop him. And with the founding of his new dictatorship, he changed his name to Dracula."

"He was eventually confronted by an extremely powerful holy woman named Veronica Boscosha lon Hellsing about 100 years later. She defeated him and sealed his body away in an unknown tomb. It was an impressive feat, seeing as the old king had consumed the blood of over 100,000 people by that point in time. Her line then took the throne with the old king's family being scattered to the winds. The country was then renamed Bosco by the citizens out of gratitude. We thought all records of that event had been erased but…"

"It looks like you weren't thorough enough." Naruto finished for him. "Someone is trying to recreate that circumstance, and with the amount of bodies already piled up it looks like we have our work cut out for us."

"Yeah" Vlad nodded.

"So… other than the history lesson, why would the current king consider you an expert on this?"

Vlad flinched back a bit, looking like he was debating something before he gave a resigned sigh. "Because… the old king's name was Vladimir Dracul Transylvia bon Tepes… and he was my great-great grandfather, who I was named after."

There was a pregnant silence in the cave, the only sound coming from the crackling of the fire. "I see… so they gave this assignment you because it's most likely someone in your family doing this and the Bosconian higher ups want you to prove your loyalty by getting rid of the threat."

"Yeah… Even though I ran away from home years ago and pledged myself to the king, I'm still under suspicion. Byron and Seraphim… they were the ones who saved me from dying on the streets. They trained me. Gave me a home. Even put their own positions on the line to vouch for me when I gave my oath to the Hellsing royal line… but since they died the way they did…"

"Your bosses think you set them up, is that it?" all Naruto got in return was a sigh. "Well, do you have any idea who could be behind this?"

Vlad was silent for a moment before speaking up. "My father, Alistair Dracul Transylvia gran Tepes. He and I are the only two people of the original Tepes clan left, so we're the only ones who can be called true pureblood vampires. Before I left I remember him mentioning there being five mixed bloods alive somewhere, but two of them were off the grid, so he couldn't contact them. It's been years since then though, so I'm not sure if he ever found them. Even then, the mixed bloods never inherited my ancestor's powers like my father and I did."

"Your **Blood Magic**…?" the blonde asked.

"That's right. **Blood Magic** is part of the Vampirism. It allows anybody with it to use eternano to control and shape their blood both internally and externally, along with giving us a minor healing factor." Huh, well that explained how he healed so fast. It didn't seem to be as good as the healing factor Naruto inherited from his Etherious half, but it was still better than the average person.

"But even we purebloods have nothing but a watered down version of Dracula's original magic, although that can be rectified by drinking the blood of other people. Alistair's body count is a little above 8,000 seeing as he only targeted small settlements, bit it's enough to at least bring him up to the lowest point of Vladimir's proficiency."

Well shit, this was shaping up to be a damn troublesome mission. A super powered vampire who may or may not have anywhere between three and five allies and most likely wants to overthrow the royal line of Bosco? Yeah, he definitely couldn't fail this job. Man, why did Warrod have to be so damn lazy? If that crazy old bozo had just come here in the first place like he was supposed to then this would all be over in like, half a second!

Sighing internally at the unfairness of the world, Naruto turned to his partner. "We should get some sleep. Tomorrow we can begin our search for Alistair." Not waiting for an answer, he laid down on his side and extinguished the fire. Even though he said he was going to rest, the half-demon decided to think on a part of Vlad's story that had bothered him.

'He said that his ancestor got all his power from a book… could it be one of _those_ books?' he thought, flashing back to the few dreams he had involving Tartarus, one of which involved a few lessons Kyouka had given him about the books left behind by Zeref. 'No, that'd be impossible. All of Zeref's books contain either demons or scriptures. I know a few of them had a few of his darker spells recorded, but nothing that could physically change someone into something like a Vampire… maybe I'm just overthinking things?' Seeing as that line of thought was getting him nowhere, he decided to give up and go to sleep.

He was sure that his life would be getting pretty hectic in the immediate future. He needed to be well rested for the things to come.

* * *

Sitting upon a throne of white gold and red velvet was a shadowy figure. Nothing but their form could be shown, which was undoubtedly masculine and their eyes which were glowing pure red shone with amusement as they swirled what seemed to be fresh blood in a champagne glass.

In front of the shadowy figure were three more, two of feminine build with the third being very large and muscular. All three of them had pupils that were sinister red with pitch black slits in the middle and seemed to glow in the darkness of the room.

"Well, my friends" the man sitting on the throne started. "It seems that the false king has decided to make his move. He has sent more people after our trail, and has even stooped so low as to bring in outside help from Fiore."

The shadow on the far left spoke in a soft, feminine voice which was so light one would have to strain to hear it. "Forgive me my lord, but does this really require a meeting? We all know that anybody they send would not be strong enough to defeat us."

"Marianne is right." This time the male spoke from his position on the far right. "We utterly obliterated the last two and they were supposed to be part of the top brass. I say let them come. I will enjoy ripping them apart and feeding on their blood."

The man on the throne chuckled once more. "Normally I would be happy to oblige you Theodorus, but this time they sent someone you are all quite familiar with." Waving his hand, a cloud of bright red mist swirled into existence before showing the three the sleeping forms of Vlad and Naruto.

"Oya," the middle figure spoke, unlike the first female she sounded entrancing and seductive. "It seems like the little boya is still alive after all." She licked her lips sensually before talking again. "He has grown up to be all nice and handsome too, and his cute friend doesn't look too bad either. I wonder if they would like to play with this Onee-chan. Oh, I can't wait to-"

Marianne cut her off before she could continue. "Nobody wants to know what kind of depraved things you like to do to young boys, Ingrid" her tone of voice, while still unnaturally quiet, managed to convey how disgusted she felt.

"Ara, ara…" The now named Ingrid smirked at Marianne as her power flared and her scalera started to turn black. "Would you like to take their place little girl?"

Marianne flared her own powers in response, her scalera also turning black. "If you think you can handle it, old hag."

"That's quite enough." Their leader spoke in a no nonsense tone. "Now is not the time for your petty squabbles. The promised time is close at hand. The clan of Tepes shall rise once more, and it all depends on Vlad. I don't care how you do it, but you must bring him before me. Alive." He stressed the last part while looking directly at Theodorus.

"And the cute little blonde with him?" Ingrid inquired.

"Do with him what you wish. It is of no consequence to me." He told her waving his hand. "You are dismissed. I want Vlad before me by the time of the next new moon."

Marianne, Ingrid, and Theodorus all bowed deeply before speaking simultaneously. "Yes, Lord Alistair."

As the three of them walked out, Alistair took a sip of blood from his glass before looking back at the projection of his son and the mage from Fiore before dispelling it with a smirk.

All of the pieces were almost in place.

* * *

**A/N: And finally Chapter 2 is finished! final word count is just above 10,000 words. It's kind of weird y'know, some parts of this were easy to write and others were unnaturally hard lol. Before anybody asks, No i did not make up the countries of Bosco or Stella. If you go onto the Fairy Tail wiki and look up Earthland in the search bar, you will see both of those countries on the map.**

**The Bloody Bosco arc has been kicked off! Why did I decide to base my OA in Bosco? Because I'm kind of disappointed that Hiro Mashima went through the entire process of making an entire map of Earthland complete with the names of each country, yet refuses to go to any of them! That's kind of dumb, y'know. He should have just made Fiore into one big continent if he was going to keep the story in one place!**

**For those of you who will no doubt ask, yes Vlad is indeed my OC and no he will not appear later in the story. Well, he might if there is enough want from the fans to bring him back but he won't be playing a big part outside of this arc.**

**Speaking of Vlad, his Blood Magic will be based off of the different Branches of Sin from the series Deadman Wonderland, which some of you undoubtedly caught as soon as I used Invisible Black. You will see more of that in the next chapter so look forward to that.**

**How did you guys like the fight? I wanted it to be a bit short, seeing as how it was supposed to be a slight teaser, but still. At this point in time, going full out Naruto would be just below Canon Laxus in strength and before you all start complaining that "OH NARUTO IS WEAK BECAUSE HE LOST AND BLAH BLAH BLAH" I already said that he was holding back, and he wasn't expecting someone like Vlad to have a move as strong as Invisible Black.**

**How was the comedy in this chapter? The whole name mispronunciation thing was kind of thrown in on a whim at the last second so I don't know if it was good or not. Naruto won't be doing it all the time, but every now and then he will do it to mess with someone just for the heck of it. Oh and for those of you who are curious about whether or not Ultear will be in the harem... eh, I'm not sure. Right now he only has a small crush based on his physical attraction to her. He is in the middle of puberty after all.**

**Please read and review. If you have any questions, comments, or even suggestions I'll gladly hear you out through a PM. I tend to reply to everyone fairly quickly and sometimes I'll even contact someone on my own if their feedback interests me enough.**

**Until next time!**

**~SilentFang**


End file.
